Calculating Max Heart Rate? :)

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theRubberBlubberWhale_Slinky
theRubberBlubberWhale_Slinky Posts: 32 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How do I calculate my Max Heart Rate? Is it 220- your age? I'm 36, so my MHR would be 184? On the elliptical I've had it go up to 190 (when I do fast intervals), what number should I use...184 or 190? :/

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  • issyfit
    issyfit Posts: 1,077 Member
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    When I took exercise physiology in grad school back in 1969 we got our max hr by running around a track until we couldn't run any more, if I remember right mine was around 215. This may not be the recommended way now but I would think an actual number from exercise would be more accurate than a general formula.
  • Growtinymusclesgrow
    Growtinymusclesgrow Posts: 152 Member
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    Here you go, take your pick! LOL!

    The easiest and best known method to calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR) is to use the formula

    MHR = 220 - Age

    Dr. Martha Gulati et al

    Research conducted by Gulati et al. (2010)[3] identified that the traditional male-based calculation (220-age) overestimates the maximum heart rate for age in women. They investigated the association between HR response to exercise testing and age with 5437 women. It was found that mean peak heart rate for women = 206 - (0.88 x age).
    Londeree and Moeschberger

    A paper by Londeree and Moeschberger (1982)[2] from the University of Missouri-Columbia indicates that the MHR varies mostly with age, but the relationship is not a linear one. They suggest an alternative formula of

    MHR = 206.3 - (0.711 × Age)

    Londeree and Moeschberger (1982) looked at other variables to see if they had any effect on the MHR. They found that neither sex nor race makes any difference but they did find that the MHR was affected by the activity and levels of fitness.

    Studies have shown that MHR on a treadmill is consistently 5 to 6 beats higher than on a bicycle ergometer and 2 to 3 beats higher on a rowing ergometer. Heart rates while swimming are significantly lower, around 14 bpm, than for treadmill running. Elite endurance athletes and moderately trained individuals will have a MHR 3 or 4 beats slower than a sedentary individual. It was also found that well trained over 50s are likely to have a higher MHR than that which is average for their age.
    Miller et al

    A paper by Miller et al. (1993)[4] proposed the following formula as a suitable formula to calculate MHR

    MHR = 217 - (0.85 x Age)

    USA Researchers

    Evidence from USA researchers, Jackson et al. (2007)[5], identified the following formula as more accurately reflecting the relationship between age and maximum heart rate.

    MHR = 206.9 - (0.67 x age)
  • theRubberBlubberWhale_Slinky
    theRubberBlubberWhale_Slinky Posts: 32 Member
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    Here you go, take your pick! LOL!

    The easiest and best known method to calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR) is to use the formula

    MHR = 220 - Age

    Dr. Martha Gulati et al

    Research conducted by Gulati et al. (2010)[3] identified that the traditional male-based calculation (220-age) overestimates the maximum heart rate for age in women. They investigated the association between HR response to exercise testing and age with 5437 women. It was found that mean peak heart rate for women = 206 - (0.88 x age).
    Londeree and Moeschberger

    A paper by Londeree and Moeschberger (1982)[2] from the University of Missouri-Columbia indicates that the MHR varies mostly with age, but the relationship is not a linear one. They suggest an alternative formula of

    MHR = 206.3 - (0.711 × Age)

    Londeree and Moeschberger (1982) looked at other variables to see if they had any effect on the MHR. They found that neither sex nor race makes any difference but they did find that the MHR was affected by the activity and levels of fitness.

    Studies have shown that MHR on a treadmill is consistently 5 to 6 beats higher than on a bicycle ergometer and 2 to 3 beats higher on a rowing ergometer. Heart rates while swimming are significantly lower, around 14 bpm, than for treadmill running. Elite endurance athletes and moderately trained individuals will have a MHR 3 or 4 beats slower than a sedentary individual. It was also found that well trained over 50s are likely to have a higher MHR than that which is average for their age.
    Miller et al

    A paper by Miller et al. (1993)[4] proposed the following formula as a suitable formula to calculate MHR

    MHR = 217 - (0.85 x Age)

    USA Researchers

    Evidence from USA researchers, Jackson et al. (2007)[5], identified the following formula as more accurately reflecting the relationship between age and maximum heart rate.

    MHR = 206.9 - (0.67 x age)
    I've calculated them all, the lowest was 174, highest was 186, and the average was 181.6. So I'm going to round the average up to 182 and use that. Thanks for your help! :drinker:
  • neneboricua
    neneboricua Posts: 6 Member
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    How do I calculate my Max Heart Rate? Is it 220- your age? I'm 36, so my MHR would be 184? On the elliptical I've had it go up to 190 (when I do fast intervals), what number should I use...184 or 190? :/
    If you've seen your heart rate go up to 190, then your max heart rate is at least 190 or more. The 220-age thing is a VERY general rule of thumb. It won't line up right for most people. Finding your true max heart rate is pretty hard and takes extreme amounts of motivation (as in gun-to-the-head motivation) and lab tests. As an approximation, you could try doing a good warmup run/eleptical/whatever and then do a very short interval as hard as you can and see what you get. But if you're trying to find your max heart rate to figure out your training zones, there's a better and more accurate way.

    Basing your training zones on your lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR) is a better indication of athletic performance. Do a Google search for lactate threshold training zones and you'll find lots of info. It's a conceptually simple test, but it's by no means easy physically. Here's the gist. After a good warmup, you do a 30 minute effort as hard as you can sustain for those 30 minutes. You can think of it as a race that lasts 30 minutes and the winner is the person who's covered the most ground in that time, instead of trying to get to the finish line in the least amount of time. Use the first 10 minutes to try to find the right effort level that you can hold. So during those first 10 minutes you're ramping up your effort to just the level you think you can stay at. The last 20 minutes should be VERY hard but you don't want to go so hard that you can't complete the effort. At the end of the 20 minutes you want to be able to ask yourself "could I have gone any harder?" and have the answer be "no". Using a heart rate monitor, you would hit the "Lap" button at the start of the 30 minute race and then hit the lap button again after the first 10 minutes. When the next 20 minutes is over, hit the "Lap" button once more, then do a cool down. Your average heart rate during those last 20 minutes is a good estimate of your lactate threshold heart rate. Using this number you can set up specific training zones, like these.

    Zone 1 Active Recovery = < 55% of LT
    Zone 2 Endurance = 56-75% of LT
    Zone 3 Tempo = 76-90% of LT
    Zone 4 Lactate Threshold = 91-105% of LT
    Zone 5 VO2 Max = 106-120% of LT

    Your workouts would then target one or more of these zones. For example, you could have a workout where you run/ride/whatever at Zone 2 with a few intervals of Zone 4 or 5. Another workout might be longer intervals at Zone 3. Lots of good info out there.

    Hope this helps.
  • Growtinymusclesgrow
    Growtinymusclesgrow Posts: 152 Member
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    ^^^^^ Responding to the above statement^^^

    The lactate threshold (LT) (or lactate inflection point (LIP) or aerobic threshold (AeT)) is the exercise intensity at which lactate (more specifically, lactic acid) starts to accumulate in the blood stream. The reason for the acidification of the blood at high exercise intensities is two-fold: the high rates of ATP hydrolysis in the muscle release hydrogen ions, as they are co-transported out of the muscle into the blood via the MCT— monocarboxylate transporter, and also bicarbonate stores in the blood begin to be used up. This happens when lactate is produced faster than it can be removed (metabolized) in the muscle. When exercising at the LTS intensity any lactate produced by the muscles is removed by the body without it building up.

    With a higher exercise intensity the lactate level in the blood reaches the 'anaerobic threshold (AT), or the onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA).

    The lactate threshold is a useful measure for deciding exercise intensity for training and racing in endurance sports (e.g. long distance running, cycling, rowing, swimming and cross country skiing), but varies between individuals and can be increased with training. Interval training takes advantage of the body being able to temporarily exceed the lactate threshold, and then recover (reduce blood-lactate) while operating below the threshold and while still doing physical activity. Fartlek and interval training are similar, the main difference being the structure of the exercise. Interval training can take the form of many different types of exercise and should closely replicate the movements found in the sport.

    Accurately measuring the lactate threshold involves taking blood samples (normally a pinprick to the finger, earlobe or thumb) during a ramp test where the exercise intensity is progressively increased. Measuring the threshold can also be performed non-invasively using gas-exchange (Respiratory quotient) methods, which requires a metabolic cart to measure air inspired and expired.

    Although the lactate threshold is defined as the point when lactic acid starts to accumulate, some testers approximate this by using the point at which lactate reaches a concentration of 4 mM (at rest it is around 1 mM).


    So there is your fancy scientific response to Lactate Threshold...unless you are a endurance athlete, I'd would suggest sticking to any of the options I gave you. But I am no expert...be safe, train hard and often and most importantly, HAVE FUN!

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